


The Space Between

by bella8876



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Slash, Slight Spoilers for Restraint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 02:38:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/461330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bella8876/pseuds/bella8876
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek trusts Stiles, when the hell had that happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Space Between

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday present for Stef who is amazing and wonderful and flails with me over Sterek!

Derek was startled awake by the familiar creak of the subway car door. His head snapped back and slammed into the cold tile wall, hard. He bit his tongue to keep from crying out and blinked as his vision blurred for a second. He couldn’t even remember falling asleep, and he had no idea how long he’d been out. 

When he could see again Stiles was staring back at him with a soft smile on his face. He looked as tired as Derek felt. 

“She’s out,” he said turning his head to work out the kinks in his shoulders and Derek couldn’t help but follow the lines of the muscles in his neck. They were tight. When Derek looked closer he noticed that Stiles’ whole body was tight, like a spring all coiled up and ready to bounce, or shatter, which ever happened first. 

Derek made no move to get up or comment so Stiles shuffled over to the spot of wall beside him and slid down until he was sitting on the concrete floor, pulling his knees up under his chin. 

“So, sleep here often?” Stiles asked and Derek snorted. “Cause it’s not very comfortable,” Stiles squirmed a bit trying to find a better position until Derek turned his head and shot him an annoyed glare. “Though that would explain your general,” Stiles waved his hands vaguely in Derek’s direction, “Grumpiness.” 

Derek huffed. “My mattress is otherwise occupied.” He reminded Stiles and the other boy followed his gaze to the subway car. 

“Oh sorry,” Stiles said ducking his head sheepishly. He vaguely remembered ordering Derek to help him move Erica somewhere more comfortable after the whole breaking her arm and draining the Kamina’s venom thing. 

“How’s she doing?” Derek asked and Stiles frowned at him. 

“Wow that sounded like you actually care,” Stiles snapped and Derek growled low. “Sorry. I’m sorry that was…way out of line.” Stiles let out a ragged breath. “I know you care about them.” 

Derek huffed because he really did, and when had that happened? “She’s pack,” he said and Stiles knew it was more than that but he let it go. 

“Speaking of pack,” Stiles said. “I heard you and Scott earlier. So we’re gonna work together on this now?” 

“Yeah,” Derek nodded. “He agreed to help on the condition that I do it his way. Which, now that I’ve had time to let that sink in isn’t really filling me with confidence, but it’s the only option I’ve got.”

Stiles laughed. “Don’t worry dude, Scott’s not really big on the planning thing. Ever since we were five and his epic plan to kiss Susie DeMarco during recess resulted in two broken arms and the first ever suspension in Kindergarten history, he wisely leaves that job up to me. And you trust me right?” Stiles asked, nudging Derek’s shoulder with his own and smiling lopsidedly. The question was rhetorical, Stiles never actually expected him to answer, and he wasn’t sure who was more surprised when he did. 

“Of course,” Derek said, too quickly, too unguardedly for it to be anything other than the truth. Trust wasn’t a luxury that Derek allowed himself these days, not after Kate, not after Peter. He wasn’t sure if he’d even been able to trust anyone again. But impossibly, he trusted Stiles. 

He wanted to trust his pack, he really did. But he couldn’t. He knew they trusted him, all of them. Erica, Isaac, Boyd, even Scott, who might fight against it with every breath he took. He trusted that they’d have his back, trusted that they’d listen to him when he needed them to. But it wasn’t a complete and total trust. It never could be. Because he knew if he ever showed the slightest hint of weakness, ever hesitated even a bit, they would latch onto it and they would use it to take him down. He didn’t blame them; it was just in their nature. He was the Alpha, it came with the territory. 

But Stiles. For some reason he trusted Stiles. He didn’t get it, couldn’t explain it, but it was there all the same, this strange understanding between the two of them that neither of them had ever actually acknowledged but both of them relied on. Probably far too much. The human and the werewolf. It sounded like a really bad sitcom on the CW. It didn’t make sense, it certainly shouldn’t work. But it did. 

“I have no idea what I’m doing Stiles.” Derek said quietly. Again the words were out of his mouth before his brain had a chance to filter them. He held his breath, waiting for something, a laugh, a joke, anything. But Stiles seemed to understand the severity of Derek’s impromptu confession and kept his mouth shut. 

In a way that was almost worse. Derek had come to rely on Stiles to fill in the silences that stretched between them and without him taking the lead it left Derek no other choice but to keep talking. 

“Every time I try to fix something I end up making it worse. I’m trying to help Scott but he won’t let me. I make the stellar decision to give Jackson the bite and he turns into an abomination. Isaac’s a fugitive, Erica could have died…” Derek ran a hand through his air. “I was never supposed to be the Alpha. It was always going to be Laura. She’d been training for it since she was born. And I keep asking myself, What would Laura do, but I don’t know what Laura would do. All I know is that she’d do it better. She was always better.” 

Derek wondered how long he’d been keeping that in. Then wondered if he could claim severe sleep deprivation on the fact that he’d just spilled it all out, when Stiles finally spoke. 

“I knew your sister,” Stiles said softly. “She worked for the Summer Day Camp that Scott and I went to every year. You know what I remember most about her?” Stiles turned to smile at Derek. “She sucked with kids. No lie, she was literally the worst. She yelled when she should have soothed, and bargained when she should have disciplined and she was just overall really bad at her job. I remember one time she lost Scott for like five hours. Finally found him hiding in a cabinet in the kitchen halfway through a box of Oreo’s. He got sick all over her shoes. It was awesome.” Stiles smiled at the memory. “We walked all over her. No matter what she tried she just couldn’t get us to listen. And she could never, ever get me to sit still.”

“No one can get you to sit still,” Derek scoffed.

“You can,” Stiles said and Derek stopped because he could. Sometimes all it took was a look, sometimes just a hand on the back of Stiles’ neck. But whenever he got too far out of his head and he was going off the rails, Derek always somehow managed to rein him back him, pull him back down to earth. 

“The point is,” Stiles interrupted Derek’s thoughts. “She couldn’t even handle bunch of 10 year olds, what makes you think she’d do any better job handling your pack? Which, when you think about it is just a bunch of 10 year olds with super wolf powers.” Stiles took a deep breath. “Look, we’ll get Jackson sorted out, my dad will come to the obvious conclusion that Isaac didn’t kill his dad since, contrary to popular belief he is a good investigator. As for Erica, she’ll be fine,” Stiles said. “She was embarrassed more than anything I think. Hasn’t had a seizure since she changed.” 

“She was scared,” Derek said. He could feel her fear as she thrashed around on the ground. It was palpable, crawling up the back of his throat like something foul he couldn’t keep down and there was nothing he could do to soothe her, nothing he could do to fix it. “I promised her she was done with those when I turned her. It’s the reason why she took the bite.” Derek dug the heels of his palms into his eyes and hoping the pressure might quiet the nagging voice in the back of his head that felt the need to point out how everything was slowly falling apart.

“No it’s not,” Stiles said insistently, putting a hand on Derek’s arm, grabbing his attention and managing to quiet to the voice if only for a little while. “You gave her something no one else was willing to give her. Her whole life, everyone she’s ever met just over looked her. Even me. But not you. You gave her a place to finally belong. And she knew the risks coming into this. They all did. You’re doing the best you can with what you’ve got to work with. And hey, now you’ve got me so you know, it can only go up hill from here.” 

Derek turned to him, his expression serious. “Do I?” He asked quietly. 

“Do you what?” Stiles asked confused. 

“Do I have you?” Derek asked. “Scott said he’d work with me on this but what happens when we catch Jackson, what happens when we stop whoever’s controlling him? Do we just go back to what it was before? My pack and Scott’s pack?” The idea made his stomach turn. Scott belonged with him. Derek might not have been the one to bite him but when he killed Peter, Scott became his responsibility. And Stiles, well the thought of having Stiles in the pack just felt right. Far more than he had the energy to think about at the moment.

“I don’t know,” Stiles said. “I hope not.” He added honestly. “I love Scott, but he can’t do this on his own. And as much as I’d like to believe that I can be his Yoda, there are just things I’m not gonna be able to do for him, things that he’s gonna need you for. Besides you said it yourself we’re stronger when we’re together.” 

“Yeah,” Derek nodded. 

“Come on,” Stiles stood up and held out his hand. “You can’t sleep here, I sort of stole your bed and you’re gonna get a crick in your neck if you sit like that much longer.” 

“I’m fine,” Derek tried to brush him off.

“You’re not fine,” Stiles protested. “I bet you haven’t slept in days, I know that look, I’m wearing that look. So we’re gonna go back to my place and I’ll get the blankets you used the last time and you can even have the squishy pillow. Cause I don’t know about you but I don’t really relish the idea of going against Jackson and his scaly little puppet master without a solid 8 hours under my belt.” 

“Fine,” Derek grabbed Stiles’ hand and allowed himself to be pulled up off the floor. “But I get the bed.” 

“Uh no, you get the floor.” Stiles said as they walked out. 

“How is your floor better than this floor?” Derek asked confused. 

“Uh any floor is better than this floor. I think I got tetanus just sitting on it. Plus my floor has carpet.” Stiles said as he steered Derek towards his jeep. And he realized just how tired he must have been when he didn’t even protest or offer to drive. 

When they got to Stiles’ he made Derek a pallet on the floor next to his bed and puttered around the room, brushing his teeth and changing his clothes before finally turning off the light and climbing under the covers.

“So you’re Batman?” Derek asked in the sudden silence and he heard Stiles turn toward him in the darkness. 

“What you don’t see it?” Stiles asked, his head hanging over the side of the mattress, a huge grin on his face and Derek snorted. 

“You’re Alfred. Maybe,” Derek told him. 

“Oh come on I’m Robin at least, possibly even Night Wing,” Stiles whined. “And if I’m not Batman then who is? Obviously it’s not Scott.” 

Derek just raised his eyebrows. “What you?” Stiles asked and Derek shrugged, a small smile turning up the corners of his lips. “You’re Batman?” Stiles asked incredulously then froze, a look of shock on his face. “Oh God you’re totally Batman,” Stiles said. “You live in a cave,” Stiles said thinking of the subway station, “Your leather jacket, the deep growly threatening voice…your car!” he ticked the items off on his fingers one by one. “You drive a freaking Batmobile. You’re totally Batman.” 

“Yeah I’m Batman,” Derek deadpanned but allowed himself a smile.

“Man this sucks, I don’t want to be Robin,” Stiles sighed.

“Oracle,” Derek said after a minute and Stiles turned to him again with a question on his face. “You’re Oracle. You do the research, you make the plans. You watch over everyone. You hold us all together.” 

Stiles looked baffled for a second before ducking his head, “Wow that’s probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Derek rolled his eyes and Stiles shifted. “No seriously, how hard did you hit your head earlier?” 

Stiles leaned over the mattress and slid his fingers into the hair on the back of Derek’s head, gently probing his scalp for bumps or gashes. Derek barely managed to bite back a moan and grabbed his wrist, stopping his progress instantly. Stiles froze and looked at Derek, wondering if he’d done something wrong. But he wasn’t scared. His heart beat was strong and steady and Derek could feel it pulsing against his fingertips where they rested on his wrist. 

And suddenly he wanted to lick it, wanted to bite it, wanted to claim Stiles as his own right then and there. Wanted to drown out the scent of Scott that rolled off of him in waves and practically choked Derek with every breath. Wanted to make sure that when, not if, but when Scott decided he’d had enough of playing house with Derek and his pack he didn’t take Stiles with him. Because the thought of not having Stiles there was suddenly far too overwhelming for Derek to deal with. And when he looked into Stiles’ eyes, he thought, just for a moment, he might let Derek do it, he might let Derek do whatever he wanted to. Because Stiles trusted him just as much as he trusted Stiles.

“You didn’t have to stay,” Derek said instead. 

“Yeah I did,” Stiles’ answered seriously and Derek nodded.

“Yeah, you did,” Derek repeated. “Maybe you are Batman.”

Stiles’ face split into a huge grin then and he shook his head. “Nah, I like it better your way.” Stiles moved to lay back against his pillow and Derek reluctantly allowed Stiles’ wrist to slide free of his fingers. He closed his eyes as Stiles elaborated. “So if your Batman and I’m Oracle then that would make Scott Robin, but not like Batman Forever Robin or even Batman and Robin Robin but like old school Adam West TV show Robin and Erica’s totally Catwoman I mean, come on. I guess that would make Lydia Harley Quinn and that means my Dad’s like Commissioner Gordon. Oh! Wouldn’t it be awesome if he had like a bat signal only not a bat signal but like a wolf-signal and when weird shit went down he could just use the wolf-signal and—“

“Stiles,” Derek said suddenly, his voice heavy with sleep and Stiles turned to him again. 

“I know, I know, shut up,” Stiles rolled his eyes but Derek shook his head. That was what he was going to say, that was what he would usually say but he realized he’d almost been asleep. He hadn’t felt relaxed enough to sleep around other peoples since, well since Kate. But here in the dark, with Stiles babbling about bat signals and Adam West it had been comfortable. And then there was the added bonus that when Stiles was talking, the voice in head wasn’t. 

“No, just keep talking,” Derek told him.

“I can do that,” Stiles said softly. “I can totally do that.” He reassured Derek but he didn’t say anything more. 

“Stiles?” Derek asked confused.

“I know right?” Stiles let out a forced chuckle, “But you kind of put me on the spot here dude and suddenly, for like the first time in the history of ever, my mind’s totally blank,” Stiles said waving his hands around in desperation. “I mean the one time someone actually wants me to talk I have absolutely nothing to say. Wow, you know, I think I finally understand the meaning of irony. Take that ninth grade English teacher!” Stiles pumped a fist in the air, almost knocking his alarm clock off the side table and onto Derek’s head so Derek reached up and caught his wrist again, feeling the other boys heartbeat gradually slow at the contact. 

“What would the signal look like?” Derek asked and Stiles’ eyes went wide. 

“Ok so I may or may not have been thinking about this for awhile. There would be a wolf, because I mean hello, and I thought about having it howling at the moon but is that too obvious? That’s too obvious right?” Stiles didn’t wait for Derek’s answer just went into all the different ideas he had for the signal and what it would like. Derek didn’t let go of his wrist and Stiles didn’t pull away, it just hung there in the space between them, as Stiles kept talking and Derek felt himself drift off to sleep. 

“Look, I know we’re just, you know messing around with all this and I know how you hate letting people in on the big bad secret but, I really think we should tell my dad. I mean if he actually knew what he was dealing with he’d be better prepared to protect the public. Not to mention himself, and he really is a good detective so eventually he’s gonna figure it out. And when he does he’s gonna figure out that I knew and didn’t tell him and then I’m gonna be in so much trouble and I just hate lying to him all the time. Plus he could help us you know.” 

Apparently this statement did require some response from Derek so he forced out a long suffering sigh. “We’ll talk about it.” Derek told him. And he wasn’t just being dismissive, Stiles had made some really good points and it wouldn’t hurt to have someone in law enforcement on their side. He heard Stiles pull in a deep breath; gearing up for the conversations and Derek let his thumb slide back and forth over the pulse point in Stiles wrist. “In the morning,” he said cutting him off.

“Yeah ok,” Stiles said and Derek could feel him nod. “So then Isaac, he’s kind of tricky. I suppose he could be Nightwing but I kind of see him more as a Red Robin, not sure why. And Allison is so The Huntress, is there a more perfect fit? I don’t think so. Jackson – Two-Face, enough said really—“ Stiles was interrupted by a soft snore from Derek’s general direction and smiled to himself. “So Batman snores, funnily enough something I’d always wondered about.”

“Go to bed Stiles,” Derek said softly but still firmly. And for once he listened, rolling a little closer to the edge of the bed, his arm still hanging off the side, his wrist still in Derek’s grip. 


End file.
